Chapter 128 127: Cycles and Impossible Miracles
The huge wall clock on the wall moves every minute and second.
The Ouroboros pattern on the back of Ian's hand that appeared out of thin air after coming out of the Hogwarts Underground Palace is also flickering, and its breathing-like frequency seems to correspond to the silent passage of time.
November 30th.
This is the last day of December in the year, and it is also a date that Ian should have experienced a few weeks ago, but now it appears to him as if he has gone back in time. before.
"What kind of horror unfolds in Laura Run, Seven Days Suddenly, Groundhog Day, Happy Death Day, Horror Cruise, Edge of Tomorrow, Source Code, and Fifty First Dates!"
Ian's heart After suddenly stagnating for a moment, he began to beat violently and crazily in his chest. He was a little messy, and his face was full of the kind of horror that would only appear when you stay up late watching ghost movies.
It was as if I had really seen a ghost.
Once upon a time.
Ian has watched many movies related to time travel. To be honest, he really liked movies, and he had thought about how cool it would be to experience something similar to himself.
However.
Just like Mr. Ye is fond of dragons and college students are fond of scoops, these are all things that are said and played for fun. When things happened unexpectedly, Ian really couldn't feel happy at all.
"I'm not going to stay in this cycle for centuries, am I?" Ian was really panicking. Anyone who wakes up and encounters such a weird thing will definitely find it difficult to calm down. .
His knowledge reserve is actually not that small, but as mentioned before, due to the constraints of the Department of Mysteries on the wizarding world, there is not much in Hogwarts related to time. There are in-depth explanation books, which means that Ian's knowledge reserve certainly does not cover much time-related content.
He asked Morgan questions crazily in the trance, maybe because he really didn’t understand much. Who could have imagined that he would encounter such a huge problem when he turned around and returned to the world.
"Mr. Morgan's [Hourglass of Destiny] might be able to help me, but I can't do it now even if I want to! The little wizard couldn't help but patted his forehead.
"Why does my Christmas have to be like this? Mysterious and absurd! ? "The surrounding air is still silent and silent. In the dim corridor, only the firelight on the wall is flickering. The temperature should be a little warmer than Christmas, but at this moment, the little wizard only feels a chill to the bone.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Christmas isn’t here yet. "Silly Barnabas looked confused in the frame. He didn't understand why the little wizard outside could be so panicked.
Isn't it just to clean the toilet.
Now The toilets at Hogwarts are much better than those in the Middle Ages
"Isn't it already Christmas?" Ian saw the accurate date on the wall clock, but he still wanted to hope that the school's wall clock was destroyed by the Weasley twins.
Nothing more.
The development of things will never go as the little wizard wants.
“Are you confused in the house? I can understand your desire to get Christmas gifts quickly, but there are still several weeks until Christmas.”
Silly Barnabas looked at Ian with more and more confusion.
"I slept like a fool! Damn it! It was Salazar Slytherin who did me a lot of harm!" Ian's face turned pale, and he looked at the Ouroboros mark on the back of his hand.
To say that what is happening now is not because of Salazar Slytherin, Ian doesn't believe it. The pattern on the back of his hand has never disappeared since it appeared just now.
When this pattern first appeared on the back of his hand, Ian felt a little uneasy. Unexpectedly, his sixth sense really made him feel it right!
Ouroboros, also known as the tail-biting snake, is a symbol that has been passed down since ancient times. The rough image is that a snake is swallowing its own tail, resulting in a peculiar ring shape.
It means infinite and circular.
This symbol has always had many different symbolic meanings. It is a common symbol in religion and mythology, and it plays an extremely important role in alchemy.
“Perhaps I should have expected to be tricked like this!” Ian didn’t know the purpose of Slytherin’s “selection”. He only knew that the founder of thousands of years ago must have liked it. The diaphragm responds to people.
Don’t attack early.
It won’t happen late.
It happened on Christmas Day.
What a bad taste!
"Although it is true that Slytherin designed the bathroom, it has nothing to do with you needing to clean the toilet." Silly Barnabas still seemed to think that Ian's behavior was all related to Snape's punishment. .
Cleaning the toilet made the little wizard insane... Silly Barnabas may not be a real fool, but it is obviously impossible for him to guess the truth.
Don’t call it a portrait.
Ian estimates that even if he went to Snape and Professor McGonagall now and said that he had traveled back from the future, Snape, Professor McGonagall and others would think that he was talking nonsense.
"The use of time converters is traceable, and my experience is obviously traceable." Ian has read many books related to the experience of using time converters.
He knew it very well.
The reason why he travels through time is not the power of the time converter, but another more profound magic. This is why Ian has other speculations.
"There is no magic that has been handed down..." Ian looked at the pattern on the back of his hand, and recalled in his ears that the bronze eagle had said that Slytherin had been studying some kind of power in the secret room.
Now it seems.
"What he studied was traveling through time and space, and he actually came up with something!" Ian couldn't imagine that something like being able to reverse time with just a mark left a thousand years ago would happen. It was really a bit too much. It overturns the wizards' understanding and control of the power of time.
Can Teacher Morgan do this?
Ian found it mostly difficult.
"Maybe I didn't travel through time, well, I was just sleeping in bed..."
What happened like this was definitely beyond Ian's expectation. He really would rather believe that now What happened was just a ridiculous dream of his.
"Pa~"
Ian slapped the picture frame fan.
"Does it hurt?"
He asked silly Barnabas who looked confused and backed away quickly in fear.
“Are you stupid!”
Silly Barnabas was just about to say how painful the portrait was, when he noticed that Ian started to take out the paint for painting the portrait, and he quickly covered his face in shock.
"It hurts! It hurts so much!"
Silly Barnabas's acting skills are so vivid, which may be related to the fact that he has been held down and beaten wildly by trolls, and he knows how to show pain. At this time Silly Barnabas would rather turn around and wake up the sleeping troll than have some indescribable things appear on his portrait. He has heard about all the portraits of Ian's "zombie dog".
"Then I'm not dreaming..." Ian actually pinched the back of his hand secretly, but he still used diversified arguments to rule out unlikely possibilities.
Dreaming is definitely not a dream.
Ian still didn't want to accept the outrageous fact.
"Is it possible that I also have the blood of a prophet?"
Ian's attempt to escape reality is indeed a bit too serious. He knows that prophets can see and feel the future. The weeks he had experienced before were not necessarily his first prophecies.
It's like the God of Death is coming...Bah, bah, bah, no, the God of Death is coming. Just like those mysterious prophets in some biographies, they can always feel what is going to happen in the future through "early experience" things.
“It’s reasonable, but it’s just that our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor doesn’t have the intensity to predict everything in detail a few weeks in advance, right?”
Ian looked at his personal dashboard. The proficiency gained through learning in the next few weeks was still there, but who can conclude that people who are in prophetic hallucinations cannot hone their memory?
"I may even have traveled to a parallel universe!" Of course the little wizard knew that these were just his extravagant hopes and fantasies. It was most likely that he was affected by Salazar Slytherin's magic. He sighed and took out his wand, wanting to verify whether Slytherin's time magic could reset the entire universe.
This is not a difficult task.
All it takes is a newly learned magic.
“Call the gods to protect you!”
Ian directly released the [Patronus Charm], and countless silver rays of light spurted out from his wand, and finally slowly gathered into the image of a teenage girl.
“Fortunately, the trance does not seem to be affected.”
Ian breathed a sigh of relief. Ariana’s smooth operation meant that the ring he put on the girl still existed. , at least the time in the illusion has not been reset.
This way.
Not only did he clearly see the limitations of Slytherin's magic, but Ian might also be able to survive for seven days, and then seek help from his teacher in a confused illusion.
"I just don't know if I will keep looping the same day or looping the time between now and Christmas." Ian hopes that the situation he faces will be the latter.
Just when Ian was thinking about how to deal with it.
“You actually have a humanoid patron saint!” Silly Barnabas had been watching Ian convulsing in the frame. He immediately made an incredible sound when he saw the condensed light and shadow.
"Oh! God! A humanoid patron saint like you will probably leave your name in history like the invincible Andros!" Silly Barnabas's exclamation was not unreasonable, after all. In the many years of wizarding history, I have never heard of someone's patron saint actually being another person.
"My patron saint is more powerful than Andros's giant patron saint." Although Ian felt a little uneasy, he still retorted to the portrait on the wall.
Although the time loop was unsettling, it was not to the point of making him despair and fear. As long as everyone doesn't turn into zombies, Ian feels that he can still find a way to bring order to the chaos. After all, as the founder of Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin wouldn't deliberately leave a time magic in order to kill a young wizard in future generations, right?
Taking a step back, even if Salazar Slytherin is really a bad old man, there are many ways to kill people, and Ian can list more than 300 curses.
Salazar Slytherin, why would anyone be trapped in a time loop?
"Selected, the eagle said it was selected... Maybe the time loop is some kind of test? But what problems do I need to solve in this test to gain recognition and break the loop?" Ian tightened. Frowning as she pondered in her mind, Ariana, who appeared in the human world as a patron saint, lit up the surroundings.
"Ian, I am washing the fruit, have you returned to the world?" After Ariana showed up, she was curiously floating around in the air like a flying elf.
She walked curiously through the dark corridors, ancient guardrails and stairs. The girl finally had the opportunity to see this school she had longed for so much.
"It's much bigger than I thought." Ariana wandered around and then floated back to Ian, expressing her heartfelt emotion with an excited look and a rather amazement in her tone.
"Don't worry about Hogwarts for now, Ariana. I guess it's really a ghost this time!" Ian saw a rather strange expression on Ariana's face.
He quickly explained seriously, "It's real. It's different from the fake ghosts I saw when I was a kid, but this time I was tricked by a real old ghost!"
< br>Facing Ian’s words.
Ariana was confused.
However, she still held the sword around her waist that would appear out of thin air after becoming a patron saint. "Do you need my help to deal with some terrible evil spirit?"
< br>There was no feeling of fear, but the girl felt a little eager to try.
"Pandro said that I am very powerful in this state. Maybe I am not just an evil spirit, but I can also help you slay a dragon." It can only be said that Pandro may have made Ariana develop some bad habits.
“Oh my god! What is going on!”
The silly Barnabas on the wall was still screaming in disbelief.
"Speaking! Your patron saint has spoken! She can actually communicate with you!" It was definitely not a strange thing, and the stupid Barnabas felt unbelievable and tried his best to put his head outside the frame. .
"What's going on with your patron saint? Little wizard! Something's wrong with you!" Silly Barnabas' whole face was pasted on the frame, and the yelling in his mouth seemed quite noisy.
“…”
Ian raised his wand and took Ariana and immediately trotted away from the portrait of silly Barnabas. If the world he's staying in now is the other world of Hogwarts, there's a chance that silly Barnabas will crawl out of the picture frame like Sadako. He doesn't want to see anything that scares him and his little ones. Partner picture.
"Let's go find Dumbledore!"
Ian hurriedly ran in the direction of the Owlery.
He remembered that Albus Dumbledore was fighting passionately with Aberforth Dumbledore in the shed that night. When he encountered such a difficult problem, he immediately wanted to ask Huo Huo for help. Gewoz's principal.
There is definitely nothing wrong with this idea. After all, Dumbledore's magical attainments and understanding of unknown powers are definitely much better than Ian, a dabbler who has just been exposed to magic for a short time.
Say no more. With Ariana cheering from the side, not to mention helping Ian solve the puzzle on the back of his hand, I'm afraid even asking Dumbledore to do some advanced math problems would have a chance of creating a miracle!
"Won't you put me in a gift box?"
Ariana also has a naturally stupid side, which is also related to the fact that Ian did not tell her clearly what happened. I remember Ian said he wanted her to make a guest appearance as a Christmas gift.
“So many owls.”
Ariana floated directly into the owl loft.
"Not here!" Ian was indeed a little unlucky. He was not able to find the two centenarians in the Owlhouse. At this time, the Owlhouse had fallen into a post-event silence.
Empty.
Only a group of owls who didn't sleep at night all turned their heads to look at the little wizard and his patron saint. They had no choice but to make Ariana, who was composed of silver light, look quite sparkling at this time.
“I remember you said that Brother Albus has become the Headmaster of Hogwarts. I don’t think he will live in the same room with the owls, right?”
“Of course. , I’m not saying it’s not good, but it doesn’t look dignified enough to live here?” Ariana teased the owl and looked back at Ian.
"..."
Ian knew that Ariana lacked a lot of common sense in the world. She didn't feel it when she was in the illusion, but it was obvious that there were situations in the world.
Hmm.
It may also have something to do with the fact that Ian said he would take her to find Dumbledore, but he took her to the Owlery at night.
"Your two brothers were fighting here before." Ian reviewed his memory. It was probably the time when he crawled out of the underground palace and entered the Room of Requirement.
It has actually been quite a while since Ian spied on the two brothers fighting.
After that, Ian also witnessed the discovery of the twins on their night trip, as well as the exchange between Snape and Quirrell, and then entered the secret passage in the abandoned bathroom on the second floor. In a few hours, not to mention fights between centenarians, even men and women in their early twenties who were engaged in a fierce fight should have stopped fighting long ago.
"Let me look for it."
Ian was not able to find Dumbledore on the Marauder's Map he took out. He did see Grindelwald, but of course the Marauder's Map showed Gilderoy Lockhart.
The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is still in the office. Judging from the frequency of movement of the little black dot, it is obvious that he is walking back and forth in the office and is not sleeping.
Asking Grindelwald for help is also an option.
However.
Dumbledore is definitely the most suitable candidate - Ian has seen this old man's memory, even if it is just the tip of the iceberg, he also knows that this old man has studied time and life and death crazily.
In comparison, Grindelwald’s academic focus is completely different. Moreover, the most important thing is that finding Grindelwald and getting help requires Ian to conceal everything related to the trance.
After all, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor didn't know that Ian had such an ability. If he wanted to explain clearly what he had encountered without mentioning the trance, he would have to make up a bunch of lies.
"Did our good brother return to Hogsmeade with Aberforth?"
There is probably nothing wrong with Ian's title. After all, as Ariana's good friend, even if he doesn't round it up, , he can also discuss friendship with Albus Dumbledore.
“Hogsmeade?”
Ariana tilted her head in mid-air curiously.
"Yes, your brother Aberforth seems to live in Hogsmeade Village... Let me see. I remember that there are several people in the school who can go directly to Hogsmeade Village. "The passage." Ian searched for it on the Marauder's Map, and there were actually quite a few secret passages to Hogsmeade Village.
In addition to the Whomping Willow that many people are familiar with.
There is also a usable secret passage behind the statue of the hunchbacked one-eyed witch. This is a secret passage that connects Hogwarts and Honeydukes. It is also the secret passage that Harry often uses when secretly traveling to Hogsmeade.
It is located in the Gunhilda Corridor in Gosmoor on the third floor of Hogwarts Castle.
To enter the secret passage, you need to hit the hunchbacked one-eyed witch statue with a wand and recite the "separate left and right" spell. Afterwards, the hunchback of the statue will open to reveal a stone slide.
"The third floor is closest to us, but I think I should go to another place first." After Ian put away the Marauder's Map, he did not immediately go to where the secret passage was. Location.
"You look quite busy today..."
Ariana obviously hadn't realized Ian's situation yet. She tilted her head, but she didn't urge Ian to take her to see her relatives. She just expressed concern. the voice asked.
“Do you need any help from me?”
Girls always prefer to consider others.
"There shouldn't be any for the time being... I have to revoke the patronus spell first, and then contact you later?" Ian stopped releasing the spell after Ariana nodded.
The shining silver light gradually disappeared into the Owlery. He had no choice but to leave the eighth floor and go downstairs, where the twins who were wandering at night were still receiving Filch's punishment.
“This thing keeps flashing, it’s really annoying to watch.” After Ian walked out of the owl loft, he also looked at the Ouroboros pattern on the back of his hand that didn’t mean “resting screen” at all.
"Even if there is a real test, you have to give me some hints."
Ian ran towards the basement. As the saying goes, the person who untied the bell must tie the bell. He felt that he might It is necessary to return to the underground palace once, after all, the Ouroboros pattern that seems to be the culprit comes from there.
The bathroom on the second floor.
"It's you! It's you, the murderer!"
At this point in time, Myrtle had just witnessed Ian speaking Parseltongue. She finally dared to stick her head out of the toilet and saw it again. Ian ran into her "private room".
“Plop~”
The frightened female ghost got into the toilet again. Ian didn't explain his innocence to her now. After finding the faucet with the Ouroboros relief, he started studying it.
"The mark was not left here, but it was planted in the underground palace." Ian did not detect any traces of magic, which of course may be due to his insufficient level.
"Open!"
But Ian is more inclined to believe that the "curse mark" was imposed on him in the underground palace. Well, he finally found the pattern imprinted on the back of his hand like a tarsal maggot. An appropriate title.
“Kakaka~”
As Ian spoke in Parseltongue, the faucet with the relief began to twist, and suddenly there were countless mechanical sounds. rang out one after another.
Soon.
The entire sink sank into the ground as it descended, revealing a special secret passage that Ian was already familiar with. He did not hesitate to get into the large, dark hole.
The fluorescent light on the wand illuminated the path under his feet. With the light of the lighting magic in his hand, Ian went down the stairs and relived the more than forty minutes he had traveled.
The familiar air is dull and the familiar environment is old. Dark red candles began to light up on the rock wall, but they were completely different from the dark blue when Ian first entered.
"There are changes..."
Ian walked to the end of the passage. The candles on the wall were all crimson. He entered the underground palace again and saw the couple hugging each other. Slytherin and Hufflepuff.
And the huge dragon skeleton in the middle of the underground palace.
"Is it because of my bad taste that I was pranked by Slytherin?" Ian raised his wand, pointed it at the two huge stone statues and released the spell.
"Stone Dun is out!"
Ian felt that any metaphysics that could be believed should be believed in. Regardless of whether it was because of the manipulation of the stone statues, he still moved the two stone statues again. Returned to the original position.
There was a loud movement in the underground palace, and when the two stone statues had re-fitted into the stone wall where they originally stood - those thousands of candles that turned into crimson suddenly flickered slightly.
The light and darkness in the underground palace continued for a moment.
Change is fleeting.
"Thank God, I finally saw someone...Little wizard, where is this place?"
Suddenly.
A man with disheveled hair emerged from the huge dragon bone, which immediately startled Ian. He quickly pointed his wand at the sudden person.
The green light on Ian's wand is extremely penetrating.
"Mr. Prince! You can't kill your professor!" The person who came out saw the green light on Ian's wand, and his expression was full of nervousness and disbelief.
He saw Ian's hands shaking.
Thought Ian was too nervous and inexperienced.
"Don't be nervous, Mr. Prince, I think we just met not long ago, right... Well, it should be just these few days, but I feel like you have grown a lot taller?"
"Did I forget it? No, it was just a few days ago, it could have been last month, could it be last year?" The man was confused and murmured to himself.
He seems to be mentally disturbed.
Ian's hands were still shaking.
"This...how is it possible..."
His voice was shaking worse than his hands - Ian's performance was certainly not due to nervousness or inexperience, he was just completely stressed. I can't help the huge waves in my heart!
"Expelliarmus!"
Ian's wand flashed a red light, and then, the man who secretly put his hand to his waist not only flew up with his wand, but his whole body was also directly thrown away Hit the keel.
"Ahem! I don't want to attack you! I want to extract my memory and store it! You should be able to see that my memory is very confusing now."
Man Lying on the ground coughing like crazy.
"Impossible...This is really impossible..."
After Ian put down his wand, his hand was still shaking slightly.
"I also want to say that the power of your magic...is also...impossible..."
He looked up at the little wizard who was slowly walking towards him. Among the magic just now The majestic magic power made him feel an unmatched sense of terror.
"Professor Ronny Ehrlich...you can't be alive." Ian's expression and eyes were extremely complicated, and he tried his best to suppress his possibly trembling voice.
No wonder his mood swings are so violent.
after all!
This is a person who has died without a complete body, and now he is standing here alive! He saw the blank expression on the former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in front of him.
Ian's eyes turned to the stone statue that was leaning forward and sitting in the wall, emitting green light. The dark green eyes of the stone statue seemed to be staring into his eyes.
"Salazar Slytherin!"
There was an indescribable complexity and shock in Ian's whispering voice.
He was caught in a time loop, but it was not just a time loop. The mysterious founder who lived thousands of years ago not only set foot in the field of playing with time.
This wizard has done another thing that should have been impossible - his power has shown a miracle of resurrection from the dead in front of Ian's eyes in this underground palace!
It’s like showing off your skills.
I don’t know what the deeper meaning is...
(End of this chapter)